University Games: DU's Cole third in men's GS

Italy’s Aronne Pieruz won the opening alpine race of the World University Games on Thursday on home snow in Bardonecchia, holding off World Cup veteran Filip Trejbal of the Czech Republic in second and American Adam Cole in third.
ITALY'S ARONNE PIERUZ won the opening alpine race of the World University Games on Thursday on home snow in Bardonecchia, holding off World Cup veteran Filip Trejbal of the Czech Republic in second and American Adam Cole in third.
    The 23-year-old Pieruz topped both runs of the two-run giant slalom race to win with a combined time of 1 minute, 48.64 seconds. Pieruz has a handful of top-three finishes in FIS technical events the past three seasons but has no World Cup starts.
    Trejbal notched a career-best 19th in the World Cup slalom in December at Beaver Creek, Colorado, but he hasn’t started a World Cup GS. He clocked 1:49.52 on Thursday.
    Cole, who races collegiately at the University of Denver, finished in 1:49.91.
    “Being in fifth [after the first run] and seeing the times, I thought third was a pretty reasonable goal. My second run was the second fastest, so it was a good day," Cole said after his second run.
    Cole said he prefers a more challenging course, something the course reset offered him.
    “The course set was the adjustment. It was set a lot turnier,” he said. “I knew I could use my skiing ability instead of just how big I am. The first run, I thought I skied very smooth, but not aggressive enough. And [the second] run, you could take it a little more aggressively. And if you make a mistake, you're not going to do as well. I just skied pretty smart and had a better run.”
    University of Utah standout Tague Thorson, who won a pair of college races at Park City last weekend, finished fourth, and Switzerland’s Jan Urfer was fifth.
    A handful of U.S. college racers registered top 25 finishes. Charles Christianson of Williams College was sixth, Denver’s Francesco Ghedina, skiing for Italy, was seventh, and University of Nevada racers Cameron Barnes (ninth) and Scott Hume (11th) led Canada in the race.
    American Greg Hardy (Vermont) finished 21st, and University of Colorado freshmen Stefan Hughes (32nd) and Drew Roberts (35th) rounded out the U.S. finishers.
    U.S. coach Tom Arnstein of the University of Nevada said he was pleased with his group’s effort Thursday. Four of team’s five racers were in the top 17 after the opening run
    “I thought they did a pretty darn good job with the lack of experience in this kind of venue,” Arnstein said. “But they are good skiers and we expected a podium out of them. After looking at the field, there is some pretty good talent here, so I think three-four-six is a very good showing. It would have been nice to have two on the podium, obviously, but that Italian was quite fast.”
    The women’s GS is scheduled for Friday at Bardonecchia. U.S. racers competing are  Claire Abbe (University of Denver), Megan Hughes (Middlebury College), Jamie Kingsbury (University of Vermont), Katie Lyons (University of Nevada), Lindsay McClure (University of Denver), Lisa Perricone (University of Colorado) and Rachel Roosevelt (University of Colorado).
    Denver’s Jenny Tank will race for Germany.